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How Co-Creation and Open Collaboration Can Drive Insurance Innovation

Co-creation, the process where companies and consumers work together to create better ideas, products and services has been in practice for many years. Like co-creation, open collaboration is also a means of collectively building better ideas and solutions. However, instead of limiting the input and sharing of ideas, it considers mass contributors, industry peers, and the willingness to openly share the contents that are eventually derived.

Whether companies use traditional means to facilitate their co-creation, such as focus groups and customer surveys, or more modern approaches, such as social media or crowdsourcing, the result is the same. A collection of diverse, insightful data that they wouldn’t have had if they limited the work to the confines of their internal operations.

Why do companies invest in co-creation?

Typically, companies are looking to achieve one (or all) of these objectives:

Collect topics, ideas, suggestions from customers, employees and key stakeholders for future development of products and services

Narrow down the attributes, features, and characteristics of an identified product or service

Co-develop a prototype and eventually, an investable new product or service

There are many co-creation examples across industries that have led to the success of product innovations. A few notable examples you might recognize (that are truly open collaboration) are bitcoin, TEDx and Wikipedia.

How can the insurance industry benefit from co-creation and open collaboration?

Innovative disruptors, such as Trovand Lemonade, continue to emerge in the insurance market, which makes it more difficult for insurance companies to stay relevant and competitive. As re/insurers seek solutions to try and become more ‘innovative’, investing in disruptors or internal innovation labs/engines are quickly becoming popular choices.

Re/insurers need to tap into the entire insurance eco-system.

However, these solutions don’t seem to be enough to crack the code on major industry projects like blockchain and the millennial market. To make waves, re/insurers need to tap into the knowledge of peers from the entire insurance eco-system. Enter co-creation with peers. While this concept was traditionally seen as working with competitors, it gives our industry the opportunity to disrupt ourselves rather than be disrupted by outsiders. Which means, we can not only drive the direction of the innovation and change what is to come but also reap the rewards.

More on co-creation and open collaboration at Life Insurance Forum.

Simon Bell, Co-Founder of LOGiQ3 Group shared more on the topic of co-creation and open collaboration at theLife Insurance Forum. His discussion focused on how we can truly change the industry by innovating together through open collaboration. Simon also shared experiences from our latest joint venture, Cookhouse Lab, the first open innovation lab for insurance.